Daily Friday, February 14, 2025 – In farewell to Hiba and Ghaith, his generosity and light..! And in memory of Valentine’s Day as well..!
By admin on February 14, 2025
I woke up about a third of an hour before five in the morning, when Mona entered the bedroom and told me that everyone was getting ready to leave the house after the van that would take Ghaith, Hiba, Karam, and Nour with Mona and Mimi arrived at the airport on their way to Riyadh.
Karam and Noor were in their travel clothes, as for Hiba, whenever our eyes met, her tears would overcome her and she would start crying. They spent months and months with us at home in Amman after Ghaith’s work moved from Doha to Riyadh about ten months ago..! Frankly, they filled our lives at home and their voices, shouting, crying, laughter, movements, games, things, and also their food and drink became a vital part of everything in our home..! Now that the time for separation has come,… everything has become a candidate for difference,… and I began to realize how much emptiness Mona and I will suffer from starting from today..!
As soon as they left the house, I found myself writing the following words on the family’s WhatsApp page:
“A few moments ago, Ghaith, Heba, Karma, and Nour left, accompanied by Mona and Mimi to Jeddah… I mean to Riyadh…! (I used to travel to Jeddah when I was working in Saudi Arabia more than half a century ago…!).
The only one who was aware that she was about to embark on a new experience in her life was little Karma,…! Even though she had only just turned two years old a few months ago, as for Nour,…who was almost a year younger than her, she was watching everything that was happening around her and did not exactly understand what was happening to her and around her..!
I wish them a safe arrival,…!
Life takes a new form today in Heba and Ghaith’s life..!
Remember that all of this happened on Valentine’s Day this year 2025..!
Friday.. February 14, 2025
6:48 AM
On the occasion of Valentine’s Day, I remembered one of the many legends that mark this occasion, which is the legend that says that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century AD in Rome when Emperor Claudius II decided that single men could serve better in the army than married men who had families, and therefore decided to prohibit marriage for married young men. As the priest considered this decree unjust and continued to perform the marriage rites secretly for the young men, the emperor sentenced him to death, and in another version, he imprisoned him, and he in turn fell in love with the jailer’s daughter who was visiting him in prison, and before the death sentence was carried out he wrote her a passionate letter entitled “From Valentik”, and this letter was dated to this occasion, and the custom of exchanging love cards on this day became common among lovers.
Yesterday evening, when I returned home, Sarah was saying goodbye to Karam and Nour. It was a unique meeting in my opinion, as if these little girls were somewhat aware that something would happen after this farewell night. Then, Samaa, Rami, Joud, and Fadi gathered at the house to say goodbye to Ghaith and Hiba. The latter two had come with burger sandwiches after the shawarma sandwiches I had brought from the Kababji restaurant on Mecca Street had been used up before they arrived.
This evening, the living room, the downstairs sitting room, and the upstairs sitting room seemed empty of toys, games, and many things belonging to the children, after Ghaith shipped all those things to Riyadh. These spaces had been transformed into playgrounds for Tina, Tara, Karam, Nour, and Sarah, after Shafiq and Farah left for Cyprus with Marwan and Jude, and before them Awni and Aya to Abu Dhabi with Rawa and Mohammed. I remembered how the living room had been transformed into a football field where Marwan and Awni practiced their hobby of kicking balls..!
Since one thing reminds us of another, I remembered on this occasion the wonderful verses of poetry by the late Syrian poet Omar Al-Amiri, which he said when his eight young sons traveled to Aleppo, and he remained alone with himself in a poetic seclusion, in which he said:
Where is the sweet noise and the commotion?
Where did study become play?
Where is childhood in its glow?
Where are the dolls and books on earth?
And in another place he says:
They crowd to sit with me
And be close to me wherever they go
They go to the market of their nature
Grammar if they fear and if they desire
We sing to them, “Baba,” when they are happy.
And their threat is a door if they get angry
And their shout is “Baba” if they go away
And We save them from a door when they approach
Yesterday they filled our house
Today, alas, today they are gone.
He adds and says:
In every corner of them there is a trace
And in every corner they have noise
They broke the glass in the windows
They made a hole in the painted wall.
He concluded by saying:
My tears that I held back
Why did they cry when they got on?
Until when they walked and they removed
From my ribs a heart that is worthy of them
I found myself as a child, emotional
Then it pours down like rain
Critics may be surprised by a man
He cries even if I don’t, so it’s surprising
Not all crying is weakness
I am a father with the determination of men
Yes, and I said to myself that I have the determination of men, a grandfather and a father…!
I will suffice in this diary with these lines, as I am overwhelmed with nostalgia, and they have not arrived in Riyadh yet..!
Abdul Rahman Al-Baytar
February 14, 2025 – Friday Comment